Artist Jakobi created this AT-AT sculpture by meticulously bending lengths of galvanized steel and stainless steel wire. He says it’s one of the more complex wire sculptures he’s ever created, and it definitely looks like it was challenging to get the shapes just right.

The sculpture measures about 12″ long by 10″ tall by 4.5″ wide, and would look great in an Star Wars collection. You can find it over on Etsy for $120 (USD).  He’s also got a little AT-ST sculpture available for $70 if you prefer your walkers with two legs.

While you’re there, be sure to check out Jakobi’s other cool wire sculptures and paintings, and if you’re looking for other AT-AT stuff, be sure to check out the Imperial Walker cake and the AT-AT PC Casemod.

Generally, the smaller the wires in a semiconductor get, the more resistance they have making them less efficient. The team of researchers from the University of New South Wales has discovered a way to make tiny wires that have extremely low resistance. The tiny wires are made by stringing together individual atoms on silicon making wires as tiny as four atoms wide. For those of you counting, four atoms measure about 1.5 nanometers.

The team prepared each wire by lithographically writing lines onto a silicon sample with microscopy techniques and then depositing phosphorus along the line. The closely packed phosphorus atoms were then encase in silicon and resistivity stayed down, at least at low temperatures. The new wires have the carrying capacity of copper and could allow microchips to continue the shrink and meet Moore’s law ever-increasing demands.

[via Scientific American]

Created by Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy of CW&T, the Thermochromic Clock was made by taking segments of nichrome wire, covered with black heat-sensitive paint. When power is applied to the wires, they heat up slightly, making the wire transparent so you can see the time against the dark background. As each segment cools back off, it fades into blackness once again. The clock can also be reset to its default state by wiping it down with a cool cloth, as seen at the beginning of the video clip below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The 4-digit, 7-segment timer circuit is controlled by an Arduino, but they don’t reveal anything else about how you might be able to create one of these for yourself. It does make me think that you could make a really cool clock using some sort of heater wire filament placed under glass, and letting it glow to tell time.

[via Creative Applications]

I have a lot of those plastic wires to hold the cables together in a bunch. While these don’t really make things look better, it does make everything more organized and orderly.

Give your home a touch of green while hiding away unsightly and messy wires at the same time. Florafil cable covers are made of flexible rubber which was obviously inspired by vines.

The designer behind these up-the-wall creations is Tania da Cruz, who derived the concept from wanting to give beauty to an object that is usually left unadorned although functional (in this case, yes, it’s the wires.)

The Florafil is still a concept design for now, but who knows? We might see them crawling into hardware stores sometime soon.

[via Design Milk via Oh Gizmo!]

Sony has announced new technology called “single wire interface technology” that has only one wire for power and data transmission rather than several of current designs. The technology is expected to make phones more durable and to make designs more flexible.

The new tech uses time division duplex and multiplex to send multiple data types and power with the same cable at a limited signal frequency bandwidth. The tech supports up to 940Mbps data rate and uses 10-80mW of power during transmission and 0.3mW in standby.

Of course, you could just avoid the whole clamshell or slider phone thing and go with a device with no hinges at all.

In between farming blueberry crops, Adam Claflin of MiddleCreekMerchants makes the little Wigglebot robots (shown above) from a few bent wires for legs, a coin battery for a body, and a pair of colorful LEDs for eyes. Add to the mix a tiny little motor for a head, and the little creatures can vibrate their way across your desktop.

Adam makes a variety of unique bug-like robots, including these tiny wonders that you can control with an ordinary television remote control.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

But the pièce de résistance has to be this awesome robo-caterpillar, which squirms around the floor using six interconnected motor segments for a body.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The basic Wigglebot sell for just $10 bucks a piece, while the IR bot is a quite a bit more involved, selling for $75 each. And the crazy robotic caterpillar will set you back a hefty $175 – but it is oh, so cool.

Adam’s buggy little robots can be found over MiddleCreekMetchant’s shops over at the Makers Market or on Etsy. Bugspray not included.

Lightbotz are the latest creation from artist Marcus Tremonto, and they’re basically plain-white Munnys, loaded up with electroluminescent lighting. And these aren’t just glowing heads or something.

Each Lightbotz Munny is loaded up with a carefully hand-placed array of EL illumination emanating from its head or body. Check out this one called “Captain Light Master Dunny.”

No word on when you’ll be able to buy Lightbotz for your own desktop, but if and when Marcus does decide to sell them, this is the one I want:

Now.

[via yatzer via Geek&Hype]

No, it’s not an unfinished egg beater. No, it’s not a super spaghetti-scooping fork. Give up? Okay then what the hell is this?

Obviously the two are related, but super spaghetti-scooping fork is still a wrong answer (I should patent that idea though). No, it’s not a dwarf’s rake. Give up? Of course you do. They’re “funny tools to ease your tire.” Yeah, that helps no one. They’re head massagers. If that still doesn’t make sense then I’m sorry but that’s all I got.

The girls in the picture seem pretty happy though. Wanna give it a shot? Both the “circular wire” and the “double layers wire” massagers sell for $10 (USD) each at Brando’s online shop. The code is o s x x, btw.

Not to be outdone by the classic Atari Video Music synth, Pete Edwards of Casper Electronics put together this highly modded Nintendo Entertainment System capable of cranking out a wide variety of hypnotic and just plain weird video patterns.

By adding a patch bay and connecting them to various locations on the video processing chips, the images on screen can be modified by interconnecting the patch points or by feeding in external signals.

Here’s a video of the circuit bent NES being controlled by signals from Pete’s modular synth:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can also achieve similar effects from your NES by smashing it with a hammer while plugged in – for at least 10 seconds. Check out the complete worklog here.

[via Make:]

Designed by Jason Amendolara for Fred & Friends, the »REW cord caddy looks like an old-school cassette tape (or more like a microcassette, IMHO), and lets you conceal all that unsightly extra wire inside.

No word yet on pricing or a release date yet, but if I were to make a bet, I’d check out Perpetual Kid to see when they start stocking ‘em, as they often carry products from Fred & Friends.

Built by a guy going by the name “Wolf” (no, not Worf), this mini light-up Starship Enterprise “sparebot” is crafted from three LEDs, a couple of resistors, some wire, a magnetic reed switch and a 3-volt button battery. And it’s sure to defeat those pesky Romulans – assuming they had a tiny little ship too.

Wolf has been kind enough to post the schematic for his teensy Enterprise over on his website. Captain Kirk would approve – then he’d fly it into the middle of a black hole.

[via Hack a Day]

I love this little Mario Kart sculpture made out of coins, binder clips, wire, and other found office supplies. From the creative mind of Donald Kennedy (aka Kody Koala).

[via MAKE via Sprite Stitch]

Flexicord cables are 10 ft long, but they can be compressed to as small as 1 ft. As you can see the cable holds its shape and length and can be reshaped and resized as needed.

There are Flexicord USB cables, HDMI cables, RJ-45 network cables, S-Video cables and even Composite Video cables. The cables get their Reed Richards skills from a patent-pending technology called Memory Cord. I’ll stop playing salesman for a while and point out that if your USB device is always as close to your computer as the one pictured above, then I think you’ll be overdoing it if you get one of these stiffy stretchies. But I know a lot of people who could use one of these, myself included.

The HDMI Flexicord cable was hailed as one of the most innnovative products of CES 2009. Unfortunately, these cables are not yet widely available, but you can contact e-filliate, the Flexicord‘s distributor and at 1-800-592-7031 for orders.

Flexicord: Always The Right Length. (That’s What She Said.)

[via Everything USB]

The photo above is captioned, “I think we should try a 5.” Awwww.

And that’s a robot dog that poops lead. I think. I also think that Lenny & Meriel could make a small fortune out of selling their creations. You can see more shots of their Sparebots on Lenny’s blog and on the pair’s Flickr site.

[via Neatorama]

Designer Marcus Tremonto pokes strands of illuminated wires through glossy sheets of Perspex acrylic to create the illusion of 3-dimensional geometric forms.

While the bright self-lit forms are reminiscent of neon, they actually operate using cool-burning electroluminescent wire, consuming minimal power.

Numerous wires are precisely manipulated to create amazing sculptural forms, including traditional lamps, chandeliers, as well as more abstract shapes.

Tremento is makes his lighting fixtures in extremely limited editions, and you can find some of his recent works over at Generate LE.

This wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve seen a cord wrap for headphone wires, but this little guy is definitely my favorite.

There’s just something about these ninja bunny rabbit dudes that makes me smile every time I look at them.

These pint-sized, cable holding guys come to us courtesy of Korea’s J’Story (also featured this morning for their wonderful, whimsical organizer tabs).

Unfortunately, these cable manager ninja bunnies are only available in Korea at this point. If you want to get your hands on one, you’ll have to head on over to Korean retailer DCX, and hope you can find a way get them shipped them overseas. In the mean time, you’ll just have to admire them from afar.

Unlike the electrostatic charges you run into on a cold, dry day, this new technology uses millions of tiny “nanogenerators” to throw off electricity.

Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have devised microscopic wires which can generate minuscule amounts of current when flexed. To create power from motion, pairs of textile fibers are covered with zinc oxide nanowires 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. One fiber in each pair is plated with gold to provide an electrode. As they move, the fibers throw off a teensy, tiny bit of power thanks to the piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of zinc oxide wires.

According to Georgia Tech Regents’ Professor Zhong Lin Wang, the technology should be capable of generating up to 80 milliwatts per square meter of fabric. By taking thousands of these tiny fiber pairs and weaving them together into clothing, they could generate enough energy to power MP3 players, phones and other mobile devices. They could also be woven into other fabric that moves such as flags, tents or curtains to throw off small amounts of electricity.

Sounds like a cool idea, but they haven’t quite worked out all the kinks. The zinc oxide coating doesn’t hold up well when wet, so they’re trying to create a protective coating that would preserve the wires better. Regardless, I wouldn’t want to be walking around in the rain wearing electric clothes. I’m guessing the consequences could be quite shocking.

[via Reuters]

Each sculpture is made of varying sizes of metallic teardrops which hang from the ceiling. A special printed circuit construction technique shapes the illumination system, pushing low-voltage current to super-tiny incandescent light sources.

Amazingly, even though they’re not LED light sources, they’re rated to operate at up to 100,000 hours (about 11.41 years) of continuous use. While the final production version (shown below) is a little less delicate in design than the original installation, it’s likely to be more sturdy in real-world applications.

While one Orchadia mobile is simply stunning on its own, they look even more amazing when hung in multiples. But at $590 each, I’m guessing not everyone will be purchasing numerous fixtures.

[via Blue Ant Studio]

Kikkerland’s USB Hub Man has flexible wire arms and legs with a port at the end of each one. His body houses all the electronics and a tiny green power indicator LED in place of a heart.

The only bummer about Hub Man is that only one of his ports runs at USB 2.0 speeds without a special adapter. Hopefully, they’ll make him fully high-speed compliant in the future.

Expect these to start hitting stores in the next month or so, at a retail price of about $19 each. Check back later for details on where to order yours. [UPDATE: You can now find these over on Amazon.]

Woofy conceals cables inside his belly to keep all your wires nice and tidy. But Woofy is much more than a cord organizer. He’s the biggest party animal since Spuds McKenzie. He’s got his own Myspace page, complete with obnoxious nightclub music, he’s a real jet-setter and fabulously trendy. If you can forgive him all that, Woofy is actually a pretty cool way to hide your cable clutter.

You can get your own Woofy from Unica Home for $200. While that’s not exactly cheap for a plastic puppy, it’s a fraction of what you’d spend on a real dog. And besides, somebody’s got to fund all of his clubbing and travel expenses.